Christopher Herot's Weblog

28519 Record(s) Found For Proceeding:07-52

In preparation for Monday's FCC hearing in Cambridge on Net Neutrality, I hope the commissioners have reviewed all of the material submitted by interested citizens.  Of the 28,519 documents sent to the FCC Web Site, there are some insightful comments by CTOs of local software companies, but also a lot of submissions like this one:

MY PARENTS ARE ANNOYING
my parents can be soooooooooo annoying! ok so my mom is always invading my privacy, asking stupid stuff like who are you talkin to and blah blah blah. if i trip or sumthing i get a whole effing line of insults to my face. and they arent funny. and they try to suck the fun OUT of my life. they call rules "limits that must be set down". otherwise known as we hate you, we dont trust you,and you are a wild animal that must be tamed. and if my dad as at work and my mom starts being stupid she will call him. they even hit me sometimes. they talk about crap like control your voice's tone, and come back in at 7, i don't care how old you are and if its the summer! they let my 8 year sister have more freedom than me. if i try to tell them this i get spanked more than once. I HATE MY DAMN LIFE AND ITS ALL THEIR FAULT!

FCC Terminates Proceeding to Consider Dropping Ban on Cell PHones on Planes

Yesterday the FCC released a Memorandum Opinion and Order terminating the proceeding that was reconsidering its ban on use of cell phones aboard aircraft.  While there was an enormous (and mostly negative) input from the public on the issue, the FCC based its decision on narrow technical grounds - that there was insufficient data on whether airborne cellular use would overwhelm the terrestrial networks.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that companies such as AirCell  LLC are  still sanguine about providing WiFi service aloft.  According to the article, the speed will be "equivalent to WiFi service on the ground" but that voice services such as Skype will be blocked.  On the other hand "cellular service is the top priority in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, where social objections to cellphones on airplanes appear to be more muted."  Who knows?  It could still happen here.